Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte has rubbed his teammates the wrong way with occasional time-off asks at inopportune times, and it has some in the D-backs organization wondering how it impacted the team’s falloff before the trade deadline, reports AZCentral.com’s Nick Piecoro.
According to the report, some with the team wonder if the infielder’s absences ultimately swung the front office’s decision to trade away well-liked teammates such as Merrill Kelly, Shelby Miller and Randal Grichuk at the deadline.
The issue most notably stems from Marte’s three-game absence against the St. Louis Cardinals immediately after the mid-July All-Star break. Marte played in the Tuesday All-Star game in Atlanta but was placed on the restricted list after his Phoenix-area house was robbed of what he said was more than $400,000 in items.
“The Friday absence (later that week) had nothing to do with what happened with his home,” Arizona Sports’ Dan Bickley said Friday on Bickley & Marotta.
“… The limited reporting that I can offer on this is that Ketel Marte asked for that Friday off. He had gone to the Dominican Republic … The team flew him out there, he wasn’t on the flight back and he told the team, ‘I need to take Friday off. I won’t be back Friday.’ And that was before he knew his house was robbed.”
Did Ketel Marte’s absences play a role in the Diamondbacks selling at the trade deadline?@danbickley blasts on a recent report about Marte’s teammates being frustrated with his PTO requests.
Full @Bickley_Marotta segment: https://t.co/UYSEBOdtDB pic.twitter.com/7UaFKKLHT9
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) August 15, 2025
Piecoro’s report from a wider angle suggests that and other issues have impacted how teammates have felt about Marte. Writes Piecoro:
For the past month, teammates and others in the organization have quietly grumbled about his propensity to ask for days off. They were frustrated by the time off he requested following the burglary of his home, with some believing his departure around the All-Star break set in motion the collapse that led to the Diamondbacks’ trade deadline sell-off.
…
He also raised eyebrows when he said he needed a day off last month in the final game before the break, then was motoring around the bases in Atlanta on a double in the All-Star Game.
Marte was put on the restricted list for two games and missed a third in that first series out of the All-Star break before returning.
One anonymous D-backs player told Piecoro that Marte’s missed games felt “disrespectful” considering players with homes and families in Arizona were either deeply rumored to be on the trade market or ultimately were traded.
Ketel Marte has a history of inconvenient absence requests with the D-backs
Marte’s history of sitting out key games goes back to last season, when the D-backs missed the playoffs on tiebreakers on the final day of the regular season.
The infielder briefly shut himself down with six games left — to start the second-to-last series of the year.
Arizona was coming off a gut-punch loss to the Brewers a day prior. Milwaukee tagged four runs on the D-backs in the eighth to come from behind and win 10-9.
Marte missed the opener the next series against the San Francisco Giants, and Arizona went 2-5 down in the final seven games of the regular season.
“When an athlete comes to me, and I’ve had an eight-year relationship with Ketel, and he says, ‘I need a day off tomorrow, I am not going to be any good and I’m going to hurt the team if I play tomorrow,’ how do you take that?” manager Torey Lovullo said about that ask.
“I’m always going to protect the player, for sure … I’ll never come up here and slash a player ever, ever, ever. And I think Ketel knew that.”
Piecoro reported that while some might believe Lovullo has not had a strong enough hand in such decisions, others understand that the manager is also fighting to get the most out of a player who, when healthy and happy, is among the best at his position.
While some blame manager Torey Lovullo for giving too much leeway, those who know Marte best say the alternative approach would risk him sulking or shutting down if Lovullo tried to be too firm.
The Diamondbacks have gotten the best of Marte in this front half of August.
In 48 at-bats, he is slashing .354/.446/.625 with a 1.071 OPS. For the year, his .955 OPS sits behind only the Yankees’ Aaron Judge (1.131) and the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (1.021).
Marte has produced eight RBIs in the past three games with two go-ahead home runs in the ninth inning.
Said D-backs CEO and president Derrick Hall this Wednesday on Bickley & Marotta: “When this guy is focused and committed, I mean, there is no better second baseman in the game.”
